STS-112
Report #06
Thursday, October 10, 2002 - 5 a.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
The International Space Station is a construction site in orbit
once again as Space Shuttle Atlantis and Expedition Five
crewmembers today prepare to install the next segment of the
station's backbone – the Starboard One (S1) Truss.
Expedition Five's Peggy Whitson and Atlantis' Sandy Magnus
will use the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to install the
45-foot long, 15-ton structure beginning about 5:30 this
morning. Simultaneously, Astronauts Dave Wolf and Piers
Sellers will prepare for the first of three spacewalks to attach
plumbing, data and electrical lines to bring S1 to life. They
plan to exit the Quest Airlock at about 9:40 a.m. and can easily
be identified while outside. Wolf will wear a suit with solid red
stripes, while Sellers will wear an all white spacesuit.
Throughout the spacewalk, Pilot Pam Melroy will be inside
offering guidance and advice to the spacewalkers and keeping
them on schedule. Shuttle Commander Jeff Ashby will operate
the shuttle robotic arm providing camera views for
documentation.
Following grapple of the S1, Magnus and Whitson will move it
into position at the starboard end of the first truss segment
where it will be secured in place by four remotely operated
bolts. That first segment was delivered on a shuttle flight
earlier this year.
In addition to hooking up power, data and fluid lines, Wolf and
Sellers will release locks on a beam allowing S1's radiators to
be oriented for optimal cooling. They also will deploy an
antenna and release restraints on a handcar, which can be used
to move spacewalkers and equipment along the truss. The next
spacewalk, or Extravehicular Activity (EVA) is planned for
Saturday to continue hooking S1 connections to the station.
S1 is the third of what will be 11 segments of the Integrated
Truss delivered to the station. The truss eventually will
stretch 356 feet from end to end and will support four huge
solar wing assemblies, one pair of which is already atop the
station's P6 Truss. The truss also will support cooling
radiators and the first railroad in space, capable of carrying
the robotic arm to assembly and maintenance sites around the
station.
The workday began at 3 a.m. with a musical wakeup call to
Atlantis' crew from Mission Control, Houston. The "medley of
childhood songs" was played for Magnus from her family. The
Expedition Five crew, Commander Valery Korzun, Whitson and
Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev, woke aboard the station at the same
time.
The crew is scheduled to go to bed about 8 o'clock this evening,
and the next status report will be issued about 5 p.m. today, or
earlier if events warrant.
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